Winner of Smith Essay Contest, Adam Stevens

Jeff Smith is a liberal Democrat from Missouri who ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. Mr. Smith began the Democrat primary election as an unknown and he finished in second place, barely losing to Russ Carnahan. Smith's campaign was chronicled in a documentary entitled Can Mr. Smith Get To Washington Anymore?. This documentary accurately portrays the political situation in the United States today through the precise depiction of political dynasties, voter habits, and the impact of the media.

Mr. Smith faced one of the most crucial roadblocks to success in the form of his name. He was running against Russ Carnahan, who was the latest politico in the Carnahan dynasty. Due to his heritage, Mr. Carnahan had superb amounts of financial backing. Mr. Smith had no political pedigree and had trouble raising money and getting voters because of his last name. Since they could not rely on name recognition (Dye, 248) for donations, the Smith campaign had to focus on grassroots campaigning (Class), which involves door-to-door and one-on-one contact with the electorate, and therefore does not require the massive amounts of money that television campaigning does. Smith's name caused even further difficulties when he and Joan Barry held a joint press conference exposing Russ Carnahan's absence during many voting sessions of the Missouri House of Representatives. Carnahan's campaign responded with destructive comments on Smith and Barry's behavior as “bedfellows”. When the Smith campaign wished to give a press conference in response to the dirty politics (Class) practiced by Carnahan, the media refused to give them airtime. The only thing they were allowed to do was purchase ads. Unfortunately, that was out of the question due to cost. Smith had a difficult time responding to the claims of the Carnahan side due to the financial situation of the Smith campaign.

Jeff Smith encountered difficulties that would not be expected if one were looking into the voting process from the outside. Smith is a rather liberal Democrat who is against the war in Iraq, pro Social Security, and strives for equal education for all. His world views were shaped politically by growing up in a low income and predominantly African-American community. As such, he understands the desires of said community. He has even established a string of inner-city charter schools known as the Confluence Academies. Despite all of his understanding of African-American culture, he had difficulty getting the vote of the black community. This is due to the political environment surrounding African Americans. In order to get favorable laws passed, African Americans must support the white Democratic power base. Jeff Smith is a white Democrat, but he is more liberal than the majority of the Democratic power base. As such, if the black community were to vote for Smith, they would in essence abandon their support of the group that will pass the most legislation in their favor: the middle-of-the-road Democrats. Eventually, Mr. Smith did get votes from African Americans, but not as many as he could have received had he been a little more conservative. This thought process of the electorate led to Jeff Smith's loss of the Democratic Primary and continues to plague fringe and third party candidates.

The Fourth Estate (Class) had a great affect on the campaign of Jeff Smith, as it does on all political campaigns. The Fourth Estate is a synonym for the media. It has been given this name because of the extraordinary power that it wields over the world, almost as if it were a fourth branch of government (hence Fourth Estate). It was the media which helped decide the outcome of the election by paying more attention to Russ Carnahan than Jeff Smith. They gave this attention to Carnahan due to the appeal of his role in the greater Carnahan dynasty. The media are in existence to make money, and they treated the House of Representatives election in Missouri accordingly, by providing horse race coverage (Dye, 182), which is coverage of those ahead and those behind only. When Smith and Barry revealed Carnahan's poor voting record, the media flocked to the press conference. When Carnahan responded by claiming that Barry and Smith were fabricating lies, his statements were widely covered. When Smith wished to respond, the media were already glutting themselves on Carnahan's comments, and little attention was paid to Smith's response. Another effect that the media had on the campaign was the rift that it created between those with money and those without. Russ Carnahan's campaign was rich compared to Jeff Smith's, and Carnahan could afford copious amounts of television advertising. Since Smith didn't have nearly as much campaign funding as Carnahan, he had to rely on other strategies, such as grassroots campaigning to contact voters. The intense media focus on horse race coverage and the nature of the media as a business causes many campaigns to run unequally, regardless of individual candidate qualifications.

Jeff Smith in Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? experienced the same struggles in campaigning that plague all elections in America today. The only differences between Smith's campaign and campaigns running today are the names of the players. Whether it is campaigning or aligning oneself with a political party, candidates will always face differences in funding, name recognition, and the almighty power of the Fourth Estate.